CCD CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

According to Consumer Reports, in 2003 there were more than 5000 product recalls   involving 60 million products.

Surprisingly the Canon CCD Chip is not among them.

To read what consumers are saying about the Chip off the old block, you'd think Canon would issue a recall. They haven't.

About six weeks ago, in my commitment to begin video logging, I bought a used Canon ZR 70 camcorder on eBay.  The owner said he had only used it once to film his son's birth.

Snicker you may, but I  still believe the guy and the equipment seemed to support what he said.

It was only after I made the purchase that I decided to check what people were saying about the camcorder.

Oops! Note to self. When checking consumer reviews the  process is  supposed to be read the review BEFORE you make the purchase...not buy the product and then find out whether you've made a good purchase.

Consumers were not happy with Canon.  Seems like the camcorder has a bad CCD chip which prevents the camcorder from recording anything but pitch blackness.

While there were a lot of "don't waste your money" and "I'll never buy Canon again," this is the one that caught my attention :

" I was willing to overlook the grainy pictures and other performance quality issues this camera seems to have, however, my camera also went "black" after just 15 months of ownership. Canon did tell me if it was the CCD chip, it would be repaired for free — if it's not, I have to pay for it out of pocket and they would not provide an estimate until I sent the camera in to their factory."

Canon knows they have a problem but they haven't issued a recall. They aren't warning people on their website. They're just trying to keep it under the radar.

Now, maybe that strategy  worked in 1982, but today you only have to type in Canon ZR 70 and you go right to the angry consumer page.

Is it really worth the bad publicity ? Evidently Canon thinks so.They must think that most consumers will be satisfied by calling the company and hearing that the repair will be free.

But what about the young family that didn't get to capture their son's first birthday on tape? And what about the soccer mom who didn't capture her daughter's winning goal?

Not to mention the new video logger who was forced to stop taping in the middle of a story because of the problem?

That's right. I had just used the camcorder 5 times when  in the middle of an interview it went to black.

.I called Canon, they were lovely and said that there was a bad CCD CHIP and they would repair it  for free.

It is now in the shop. My friend Myrna is letting me borrow her Sony and if I can figure out how to get the Sony and my computer to talk to each other, I may have  a  Vlog entry later this week.

Back to the Canon. Maybe they are saving a boat load of money by not issuing the recall. While its great they are fixing the problem for free, it still shows a total disregard for their customer base.

Fixing the video camera after the fact can't make up for the loss of capturing the event on tape.

First birthdays never happen again.

On the day I took my camcorder to the UPS store for shipping to Canon's repair center in New Jersey, the clerk looked at the address and said,

"Hey this is the second one I've sent to that address today."